The Meaning of Death: A Philosophical Investigation

If death is the cessation of life, then, as a concept, it draws its meaning from the preceding life. While death and dying are inextricably connected, dying is still a part of life--unlike death. The Meaning of Death: A Philosophical Investigation analyzes death and dying, the biotechnical quest for immortality, the afterlife, and the rationality of self-chosen death.

Assuming eternal life will one day become possible, Kai Horsthemke argues that immortality is not obviously desirable, and that. even if the right to life in principle includes the right to eternal life, it must also include the right to self-determined dying and death. Although there is no creationist basis for existence and the finality of death remains a universal, inevitable prospect, this need not undermine confidence in the personal and transpersonal value of human activities. Life is valuable not only because of its uniqueness and unrepeatability, but also because it is finite. The meaning of death is essentially that it gives meaning to life.

Kai Horsthemke is visiting professor in the School of Education at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and at KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany.